


167

by IsisKitsune



Category: Almost Human
Genre: Gen, Parent-Child Relationship, Pre-Series, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-05
Updated: 2014-02-05
Packaged: 2018-01-11 07:36:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1170400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsisKitsune/pseuds/IsisKitsune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day the little blue light turned on in that single blackened eye, was the day Nigel Vaughn thought perhaps he was onto something. “Hello little one, about time you came online.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	167

**Author's Note:**

> No spoilers for the latest episode, just FLUFF, omg. And Nigel Vaughn (if he counts as a spoiler)

The day the little blue light turned on in that single blackened eye, was the day Nigel Vaughn thought perhaps he was onto something. “Hello little one, about time you came online.” The little bot turned its head toward him, making the fretting creator worry even more when blue streaked outward from the eye to the rest of the face. Soft mechanical sounds came from the small bot, “Well, I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m Nigel Vaughn, your creator.”

The blue stopped soon after Nigel reached out to brush his hand over the lights, wondering if it’s over loading circuits causing the anomaly. “Huh, okay. No errors or damage?” The small head turned, seeming to observe the rest of the run down shop, more blue streaking across the eye and face plate. “Well, this is home. Er, I suppose it’s home to you at least.”

Nigel winced at the grinding sound as the bot tried to pull back and look around at the table he was on. The little thing wasn’t even 3 foot at full length, and even that was reduced down to a quadrupedal design. “Don’t move around too much, I haven’t gotten everything road worthy.”

“Road worthy,” was parroted back, in a someone scratchy version of his voice.

“Uh, yes, I mean, I haven’t checked to make sure you’re completely mobile yet.”

“Mobile,” the voice was a little lighter than his own this time and Nigel’s eyes lit up as it repeated the word again with a new almost child-like voice. “Home,” was said as the bot reached a 3 pronged limb out to tap a left over part from the failed attempt before him. “No online,” that blue eye turned toward him, blue streaking across the face plate as he poked the scrap again.

“No, not online. I couldn’t get that one to come online, it was no better than a monitor. All it did was respond to set commands and even then it had to be manually connected to do that.”

The little bot nudged the scrap off the table, jumping and nearly falling when it caused it to bang to the floor. “Error,” the audio was a stable tone but Nigel knew it was a question the moment the bot looked over the edge of the table, “Damage.”

Nigel laughed and shook his head, “No, no damage. I heard it too, don’t worry, your audio processors are working just fine.”

The little bot climbed up into his arms the moment he reached out to take him off the table. “Road worthy,” was chimed as the little bot sat up on his shoulder to look around the shop.

“Well, let’s make sure all your parts are moving first then we’ll see about you being road worthy.”

The little bot’s eye dimmed a bit when Nigel set him down in front of the computer, “Don’t worry, I’m not taking your offline.” The blue lit back up as the bot squirmed when he tried to attach something to the back of his head. “Now stop that 167, I don’t want to damage the port.”

“167,” the little bot tilted its head in confusion, making Nigel’s eyes light up and a grin to spread across his face. The bot shivered when he snuck the jack into the proper port before turning as if trying to see where it’s attached.

“Tickle, did it?”

“Tickle. 167,” the bot’s eye just followed him while he typed and checked nearby monitors.

“Yep, you are the one hundredth and sixty seventh attempt. From the looks of things, I’d say you were a success.”

“Success,” if Nigel didn’t know any better, he could have sworn the little faceless bot was smiling.

-

Nigel jumped at the sudden impact about knee level. Looking back, he smirked at the small bot hugging his leg. “Something wrong 167? I’m busy working on your cousin.”

“Cousin? Can I see?” Nigel shook his head, smiling as he leaned down to pick up the now (mostly) bi-pedal bot to settle on his hip. “No face. Why don’t we have faces?”

Nigel turned to look at the, now two, blue eyes blink at him. He was so glad that little program had worked with how long it’d taken him to actual get the bot to blink as a constant background program. “Well, you see. Humans aren’t really ready to look at something that was build and see a face. They want something that makes their lives easier, not something that they see as a human being. But don’t worry 167, someday they will be, it’ll just take time.”

“Like when I couldn’t walk on two legs? Or see with two eyes?” The little bot’s eyes flared blue, the light running across to where an ear would be, before stopping. “Can’t you reprogram them? Like that puppy you built for that nice lady with the sick daughter?”

“167, humans can’t be reprogrammed. They can be taught, they can be shown their mistake or misunderstanding but they have to accept that truth on their own. Believe me, if humans could be changed that easily, I wouldn’t still be making these labor bots. I’d be helping keep humans from killing each other.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, like armor from a long time ago. Humans would wear it in battle to try to keep from getting hurt. Well, if they had bots that could take the damage instead of humans. Yeah, the bots could be hurt or destroyed but they’re be saving lives when normally the humans would have left families behind.”

“So we would keep Mommies and Daddies alive?” Nigel blinked and set the little bot down at his work station, “That’s what the sick daughter called her creators, mommy and daddy. Am I not allowed to use those terms? Are they only for humans?”

Nigel eyes softened, “167, you can use human terms, but yes, in general mom and dad are human terms.”

“Does that mean; can I call you Daddy?”

Nigel opened his mouth, closed it at the worried dimming of those blue eyes and nodded, “Yes, just, not out in public. Like I said, some humans aren’t ready for you just yet.” The blue light shown so bright, Nigel knew his little bot had to be smiling, it just couldn’t outwardly express it. “Hm, your birthday’s coming up. How about we work on another upgrade for you. Which would you prefer, facial structure or 5 pronged graspers.

The little bot looked down at its, still, 3 pronged ‘hands’ and the blue eyes dimmed a bit. “Last upgrade, you gave me two eyes.” Nigel was already mentally drawing up plans on the 5 finger style when the light suddenly brightened, “I want to be able to smile this time.”

Nigel blinked, “Smile? You’d take a smile over a mobility upgrade.”

“You said it’s my birthday, birthday’s are usually wants not needs, right?”

Nigel laughed, and picked his little bot up to hug him, “Yes, they are. Alright. I’ll have to take you offline for a bit, but I’ll see about giving you a proper face.”

“Thank you Daddy.”

-

The little, now roughly 4 foot at full height, bot rushed across the room, arms full of spare and new parts. “167 what’s taking so long.”

“Coming Dad,” 167 tripped, still not use to the 5 toes now balancing its weight, and ended up in a clattering mess.

“167! Are you alright?” Nigel dropped what he was working on to help the little bot out of the mess.

“I’m alright, just a few minor errors. I think I got something stuck,” 167 pulled a lose wire from its chest area and the error went away, along with the sporadic tickling shocks that was causing the error. “I think I need more covering…”

Nigel just smirked, “Yeah, looks like it. How’s your balance?”

“It’s down to 75% efficiency. I’m still not use to the limb upgrade. My reach is longer and I keep kicking things thinking I picked my foot up higher than I did.”

“Sounds like a normal teenager to me.” 167’s face light up as he smiled wide at Nigel’s words. “Alright, no errors or damage, back to work. I need to get that prototype ready for the city to see by the end of the month.”

167 jumped up quick and grabbed at as many of the parts as he could safely carry with the efficiency issue before running back to grab the rest, giving Nigel a minor heart attach when he tripped over the step up into the main shop.

“What’s the city want these ones for? Mail carriers or something?” 167 looked down at the humanoid bot sprawled and half assembled on the diagnostic table.

“Remember when I said I wanted to build bots to take humans’ places in dangerous scenarios?” 167 nodded, “This one will be a cop.”

167 turned wide, bright blue eyes to its creator. “Cops?” Nigel smiled at the smiling bot. “Could I maybe be a cop one day?”

“One day. If that’s what you want.” 167 was nodding its head so hard Nigel feared a bolt might come loose. “Alright, alright, calm down. You still have a lot of upgrades left before you get that far.”

167 was still smiling at the bot before poking at the arm where a flesh toned casing was hiding the circuits. “What’s that?”

“It’s someone protective. It’s supposed to simulate skin since you want the humans to be willing to come up to the android in time of crisis. But something just seems off. I can’t get the feeling right.”

167 reached out again to press a finger against the skin and then Nigel’s own arm. “No heat, no sweat or oil. No hair. Maybe make it give a little more?” Nigel blinked at the little bot poking his arm to show how the skin gives then the bot where there was no give.

“Huh, thank you 167, I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

The little bot smiled up then frowned at the half assembled bot. “Dad, can I have skin too?”

Nigel’s brow rose, “Well, I don’t see why not. But we’ll have to pick a gender, by your voice I’d say male.”

“Why do we have to pick a gender?”

“Humans are funny that way. If they can’t categorize something they usually fear or hate it. And nothing good comes of either of those things.”

“Okay, I’ll be male then.”

Nigel patted the little bot on the shoulder, “You’ll have to go offline for it.”

“Ugh, I hate that part. I worry that I’m not going to have someone wake me back up.”

“Don’t worry 167, they’ll always be someone that will.”

-

“Dad, I don’t see why I had to get another limb upgrade,” Nigel was just smiling at the grumbling bot as he helped straighten _his_ clothing.

“It’s because the police don’t accept children.” 167’s eyes widened at that. “I’ve officially gotten the contract for the DRN units.

“I’m gonna be a cop?!”

Nigel rolled his eyes as 167 started physically bouncing around rambling on. “When was the last time you charged?”

“I’m fine Dad, I charged yesterday,” Nigel’s face said he was not convinced, “Honest, I’m just. Really excited, man. I’m going to be a cop!”

“Well, calm down. An Android isn’t supposed to go flying off the handle like that.” 167 looked confused and Nigel rolled his eyes. “It’s an expression, uh colloquialism. Didn’t I give you a program for those?”

“Oh right, it wasn’t running, sorry.” Blue streaked across 167’s face, making Nigel smile.

“Look at you. You’ve grown up so fast.”

167 rolled his eyes, “Dad, humans aren’t supposed to gush over androids.”

“Gush?”

“I’m running my colloquialism program,” 167 shrugged, making Nigel laugh.

“Alright, just, don’t go getting yourself blown up. Okay?”

“I can’t promise anything Dad, you know I’m there to help keep humans alive and safe.”

Nigel nodded, “Yeah, I guess so.” He glanced over the paperwork, “DRN 0167”

167 made a face, “DRN?”

“How about, Dorian?” 167 grinned and Nigel did a quick, small, change to the bots designation.

“I like that.”

“Yeah well, you’ll always be my little 167.”

Dorian rolled his eyes, “Dad, now you’re just being embarrassing.”

“That’s what parents do, you’ll learn to live with it.”


End file.
